UK PM bargains with British on how to get back to work and resurrect the economy
Boris Johnson has revealed the first steps in getting England’s economy up and running but the British PM also issued a warning for the nation.
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Boris Johnson has begged Brits to get back to work as he walks a tightrope on keeping coronavirus at bay and resurrecting the economy.
The UK will remain in lockdown until at least June 1, but construction companies and manufacturers have been told to get back on the tools.
The British Prime Minister will allow people to play golf and go fishing from this week, but schools will only open on a limited basis from June, while cafes and restaurants would remain shuttered until at least July.
There were no details on when pubs would reopen, with some reports they could be closed until Christmas.
Tourists and anyone returning to the UK will be quarantined for 14 days on arrival, as the UK matches Australia’s hard line travel restrictions.
Mr Johnson delivered a speech to the nation on Sunday night local time, where he outlined the “first sketch of a road map” towards ending the UK’s lockdown.
An uncharacteristically sombre Mr Johnson, said: “This is not the time simply to end the lockdown this week.
“Instead we are taking the first careful steps to modify our measures.”
He announced a five-phase approach to easing the lockdown, saying that the UK was currently on level four, with hopes to move to level three next month, which would be marked by the opening schools for preps, year one and year six students and some shops.
The next steps would only be reached if the virus was kept in control and people followed the rules.
Mr Johnson, offering a nod to some of the pro-business MPs in his party, urged businesses to get back to work as long as they could do so with social distancing.
“Anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction and manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work,” he said.
The UK has offered one of Europe’s most generous wage subsidy schemes, with the government paying 80 per cent of wages up to $5000 AUD per month, with some MPs fearing that the economy was becoming addicted to the handouts.
A survey for The Sun newspaper found that 90 per cent of Brits wanted to stay in lockdown until it was safe, as long as they were still getting paid.
However, workers have been told to get on their bikes to get to work or drive because there were fears that the virus would spread if people jumped back on London’s tube and buses around the UK.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the public transport rules were a “logistic nightmare for millions of people”.
“Lots of people will be scratching their heads, saying how’s that going to work,” he said on Sky News UK.
Mr Johnson, who counts Lynton Crosby, one of John Howard’s former advisers, as a friend and confidant.
His new messaging of “stay alert, control the virus and save lives” echoes Mr Howard’s “be alert, not alarmed” anti-terrorism slogans from 2002.
The UK has been in lockdown for seven weeks, but has earned the dubious record of having the highest death toll in Europe, with more than 30,000 deaths so far.
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However, the UK has been upfront with its shocking toll, including nursing home deaths in the tally, while other nations have not yet added those numbers.
Mr Johnson warned that the UK was in danger of a second deadly coronavirus peak, with the R value, the rate at which the virus was spreading, somewhere between 0.5 and 0.9.
Anything over 1 would unleash another ghastly wave of deaths, with up to 100,000 lives at risk, according to scientists’ estimates.
Coronavirus infections were understood to be spreading more slowly in the community, but a crisis in nursing homes and some hospitals, has been pushing up the R.
At least 203 medical staff have died in the UK of coronavirus, with Mr Johnson accepting that personal protection equipment was inadequate in some places, vowing to do more.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk